Cars, Vans, Pickups, and Trucks, all are vehicles that are powered by gasoline and have become a necessity to human life. The streets are filled with them, people just driving their cars trying to get form point A to point B. As we know vehicles are very expensive to maintain, especially with gas prices on the rise. Car companies have been trying to solve this problem, with creating cars that are more efficient in gas consumption and they have appeared to do well in the economy, but it is still not good enough. If only car companies would come up with a vehicle that does not cost as much and still has the same efficiency as a normal gasoline powered vehicle. Wait a second though; there was the invention of the electric car that actually came out at the same time as the gasoline powered cars. What ever happened to those vehicles? And why have they not put them back into production?
Vehicles are pretty much one of the most important technological devices created by man. It uses are endless, we rely on the to not only to get to work but to get to work on time, and not just work, but schools, movies, friends birthday party and the list goes on. Vehicles make everything we do a more efficient process, and it has given people the opportunity and satisfaction of doing numerous things in a single day without any difficulties, except for the occasional flat tire, or dead battery. Now let say cars never existed and we still had to ride chariots and horses to work. Our lives would be so different. People grow accustom to the area that they live in. Their children love the school district that they are in, and the parents love it because they have close family members who live close by, who could watch over the kids after school while they are still at work. Not only that, but they are HAPPY…and I stress on the word happy, because families and willing to commute 4 hours a day to work and back just so they could stay where they are close to everyone they love. If we did not have cars people would have to move to a place a lot closer to their place of work just so their horses could get them to work on time. According to an article “The birth of the car as we know it today occurred over a period of years. It was only in 1885 that the first real car rolled down on to the streets. In the United States where Henry Ford began work on a horseless carriage in 1890. He went several steps forward and in 1896, completed his first car in 1896” (Birth of Cars). But society lately has been struggling with increasing gas prices. This is making it harder on the people who have to travel long distances to work everyday or have lots of arraigns to run. Increasing gas prices means more of a persons’ household budget will have to go to gas causing financial difficulties for the family. Car companies have tried to solve this problem by introducing more fuel efficient cars. Toyota is one of these car companies that provided a solution and succeeded in the market place. According to an article “The world's most profitable automaker - and soon to be its biggest - now has a 15% market share in the U.S., where it sold 2.5 million cars and trucks last year. Toyota is already bigger than Chrysler in the U.S. and is about to pass Ford. Toyota's presence in the U.S. is now so routine that the 3,322 business leaders Fortune surveyed named Toyota one of America's Most Admired Companies for the second year in a row” (America’s best car company).A big reason of Toyotas success is because of its fuel efficient and a trouble free vehicle that is affordable. To bad though for that success was not enough to hold strong against the increasing gas prices. Toyotas sales began to decline along with every other car manufacturing industry. According to an article “DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp tumbled to a 54-year low while smaller rival Ford Motor Co. shares fell as much as 10 percent on Monday on concerns record oil prices would further hit U.S. demand for vehicles.U.S. automakers including GM and Ford were expected to post double-digit decline in U.S” (GM, Ford shares decline ahead). Toyotas’ states were not any better; their sales dropped at least 30 percent (Johnson and Krisher, 2009). With sales carrying on like this and gas prices increasing, it appears inevitable that the car manufacturing companies are going to lose a lot of money or even worse have to shutdown their companies, if they do not come up with a more efficient product to replace the ones at hand.
As we can tell we are dealing with a very serious problem, but people still need their cars. According to an article “The United States is still very much in love with the automobile, with a national average of 2.28 vehicles per household. Experian Automotive found single- and two-vehicle households are almost neck and neck, at nearly 34 percent and 31 percent, respectively. However, households with three or more vehicles maintain the single largest category, at nearly 35 percent” (Auto Spies). A lot of people are going to have to rearrange their lives and adjust to all these changes happening in the economy. If only a company can come up with a car that does not need gas to run! Wait a second though such an invention has already been created, and according to sources, before the gasoline operated vehicles! According to sources “Between 1832 and 1839, Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first crude electric carriage. A small-scale electric car was designed by Professor Stratingh of Groningen, Holland, and built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835. Practical and more successful electric road vehicles were invented by both American Thomas Davenport and Scotsmen Robert Davidson around 1842. The years 1899 and 1900 were the high point of electric cars in America, as they outsold all other types of cars. Electric vehicles had many advantages over their competitors in the early 1900s” (the history of electric vehicles). So the electric car was more affordable and appealing to society. It was easier to use, did not cause much trouble, and so what happened to it? Why did they decide to get ride of a car that was obviously better than the gasoline fuel vehicles? According to an article “In 1908, Henry Ford began mass production of the infamous gasoline air polluting car known as the Model T. Most people in the U.S. believed that automobiles would be powered by the newly developed wonder of ELECTRICITY. What most people did not realize was that Ford Motor Company was a SUBSIDIARY of the Rockefeller owned Standard Oil Co. When the other car companies saw the vast profits that Ford was making on his gasoline powered Model T, they abandoned the electric car and began to produce their own air polluting cars”(who killed the electric car). So it got to a point at that time where they found a way to make cheaper cars, and that way apparently was to invest in gasoline fueled vehicles.
As we can see gas prices have been having a negative effect not only on the car manufacturing companies but society as a whole. These companies have got to find out a way to produce products that meet the demands of the economies current situation before they go out of business. Or else a lot of people are going to have to change up their lifestyles dramatically in order to meet the financial situation that they are in. In the end if nothing changes it is everyone who then will suffer!!
Name: Ramy Hamdoun
CCT205
Cars, Vans, Pickups, and Trucks, all are vehicles that are powered by gasoline and have become a necessity to human life. The streets are filled with them, people just driving their cars trying to get form point A to point B. As we know vehicles are very expensive to maintain, especially with gas prices on the rise. Car companies have been trying to solve this problem, with creating cars that are more efficient in gas consumption and they have appeared to do well in the economy, but it is still not good enough. If only car companies would come up with a vehicle that does not cost as much and still has the same efficiency as a normal gasoline powered vehicle. Wait a second though; there was the invention of the electric car that actually came out at the same time as the gasoline powered cars. What ever happened to those vehicles? And why have they not put them back into production?
Vehicles are pretty much one of the most important technological devices created by man. It uses are endless, we rely on the to not only to get to work but to get to work on time, and not just work, but schools, movies, friends birthday party and the list goes on. Vehicles make everything we do a more efficient process, and it has given people the opportunity and satisfaction of doing numerous things in a single day without any difficulties, except for the occasional flat tire, or dead battery. Now let say cars never existed and we still had to ride chariots and horses to work. Our lives would be so different. People grow accustom to the area that they live in. Their children love the school district that they are in, and the parents love it because they have close family members who live close by, who could watch over the kids after school while they are still at work. Not only that, but they are HAPPY…and I stress on the word happy, because families and willing to commute 4 hours a day to work and back just so they could stay where they are close to everyone they love. If we did not have cars people would have to move to a place a lot closer to their place of work just so their horses could get them to work on time. According to an article “The birth of the car as we know it today occurred over a period of years. It was only in 1885 that the first real car rolled down on to the streets. In the United States where Henry Ford began work on a horseless carriage in 1890. He went several steps forward and in 1896, completed his first car in 1896” (Birth of Cars).
But society lately has been struggling with increasing gas prices. This is making it harder on the people who have to travel long distances to work everyday or have lots of arraigns to run. Increasing gas prices means more of a persons’ household budget will have to go to gas causing financial difficulties for the family. Car companies have tried to solve this problem by introducing more fuel efficient cars. Toyota is one of these car companies that provided a solution and succeeded in the market place. According to an article “The world's most profitable automaker - and soon to be its biggest - now has a 15% market share in the U.S., where it sold 2.5 million cars and trucks last year. Toyota is already bigger than Chrysler in the U.S. and is about to pass Ford. Toyota's presence in the U.S. is now so routine that the 3,322 business leaders Fortune surveyed named Toyota one of America's Most Admired Companies for the second year in a row” (America’s best car company).A big reason of Toyotas success is because of its fuel efficient and a trouble free vehicle that is affordable. To bad though for that success was not enough to hold strong against the increasing gas prices. Toyotas sales began to decline along with every other car manufacturing industry. According to an article “DETROIT (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp tumbled to a 54-year low while smaller rival Ford Motor Co. shares fell as much as 10 percent on Monday on concerns record oil prices would further hit U.S. demand for vehicles. U.S. automakers including GM and Ford were expected to post double-digit decline in U.S” (GM, Ford shares decline ahead). Toyotas’ states were not any better; their sales dropped at least 30 percent (Johnson and Krisher, 2009). With sales carrying on like this and gas prices increasing, it appears inevitable that the car manufacturing companies are going to lose a lot of money or even worse have to shutdown their companies, if they do not come up with a more efficient product to replace the ones at hand.
As we can tell we are dealing with a very serious problem, but people still need their cars. According to an article “The United States is still very much in love with the automobile, with a national average of 2.28 vehicles per household. Experian Automotive found single- and two-vehicle households are almost neck and neck, at nearly 34 percent and 31 percent, respectively. However, households with three or more vehicles maintain the single largest category, at nearly 35 percent” (Auto Spies). A lot of people are going to have to rearrange their lives and adjust to all these changes happening in the economy. If only a company can come up with a car that does not need gas to run! Wait a second though such an invention has already been created, and according to sources, before the gasoline operated vehicles! According to sources “Between 1832 and 1839, Robert Anderson of Scotland invented the first crude electric carriage. A small-scale electric car was designed by Professor Stratingh of Groningen, Holland, and built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835. Practical and more successful electric road vehicles were invented by both American Thomas Davenport and Scotsmen Robert Davidson around 1842. The years 1899 and 1900 were the high point of electric cars in America, as they outsold all other types of cars. Electric vehicles had many advantages over their competitors in the early 1900s” (the history of electric vehicles). So the electric car was more affordable and appealing to society. It was easier to use, did not cause much trouble, and so what happened to it? Why did they decide to get ride of a car that was obviously better than the gasoline fuel vehicles? According to an article “In 1908, Henry Ford began mass production of the infamous gasoline air polluting car known as the Model T. Most people in the U.S. believed that automobiles would be powered by the newly developed wonder of ELECTRICITY. What most people did not realize was that Ford Motor Company was a SUBSIDIARY of the Rockefeller owned Standard Oil Co. When the other car companies saw the vast profits that Ford was making on his gasoline powered Model T, they abandoned the electric car and began to produce their own air polluting cars”(who killed the electric car). So it got to a point at that time where they found a way to make cheaper cars, and that way apparently was to invest in gasoline fueled vehicles.
As we can see gas prices have been having a negative effect not only on the car manufacturing companies but society as a whole. These companies have got to find out a way to produce products that meet the demands of the economies current situation before they go out of business. Or else a lot of people are going to have to change up their lifestyles dramatically in order to meet the financial situation that they are in. In the end if nothing changes it is everyone who then will suffer!!
Bibliography
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"Toyota: America's Best Car Company - March 19, 2007." Business, financial, personal finance news - CNNMoney.com. 04 Feb. 2009 <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/03/19/8402324/index.htm>.
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"Auto sales in United States plunge 37 per cent to 26-year low - Canadian Press Automotive News - Sympatico / MSN Autos." Car information, new car prices, used car values, used car reviews, new car reviews - Sympatico/MSN Autos. 04 Feb. 2009 <http://en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/news/canadian-press-car-article.aspx?cp-documentid=17458703>.
"Study Finds Americans Own 2.28 Vehicles Per Household - AutoSpies Auto News." AutoSpies - Detroit Auto Show, New York Auto Show, SEMA Auto Show, Auto News, Reviews, Car Photos, Auto Show Photos, Spy Shots. 04 Feb. 2009 <http://www.autospies.com/news/Study-Finds-Americans-Own-2-28-Vehicles-Per-Household-26437/>.
"History of Electric Vehicles." Inventors. 04 Feb. 2009 <http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm>.
"Who killed the electric car?" The Reformation Online - The Most Timely, Scientific, and Patriotic Site on the Internet. 04 Feb. 2009 <http://www.reformation.org/who-killed-electric-car.html>.